Atool is an extension to our previous CamKeys project. Like CamKeys, atool allows keyboard input based on a cheap webcam. Atool adds DDR pads (or other game controller buttons) as an additional input and it allows playing recorded sounds on input events.
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Entries Tagged Motor impaired
atool enables DDR pad or webcam input
June 12th, 2008 — Blind, Enabling Technology, Motor impaired, Programming, Random
Combining WordPress and Flickr to make accessible books for beginning readers
June 3rd, 2008 — Enabling Technology, Motor impaired, Programming
Tar Heel Reader is a web site designed to help teachers make easy-to-read books for children with disabilities. It has a growing selection of books to read and a simple process for creating new books using pictures found on Flickr.
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Karen notes
May 14th, 2008 — Enabling Technology, Ideas, Motor impaired
Notes from a conversation with Karen. Always great fun.
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PyCV
February 18th, 2008 — Enabling Technology, Links, Motor impaired
Minh-Tri Pham wrote with info on his PyCV package. This could be very useful for locating kid’s faces for games and therapy for kids who are motor impaired. His demo works fine on my Ubuntu system.
SerialKeys for OS X
January 30th, 2008 — Enabling Technology, Motor impaired
SerialKeysX is an implementation of the SerialKeys protocol for Apple’s OS X operating system. It allows control of the computer’s keyboard and mouse over a serial connection from devices such as the EyeGaze and other augmented communication devices. You may download and use the software for free.
Opengazer
January 21st, 2008 — Enabling Technology, Ideas, Links, Motor impaired, Programming
Wow! Pete sent me this pointer to Opengazer. I’ve wondered if this was possible but never found a student to work on it. Thanks to Piotr Zieliński for developing it and making it open source. We’ll have great fun with this in accessible applications for people with impaired movement.
Another AAC video
December 28th, 2007 — Enabling Technology, Links, Motor impaired
Gretchen sent a pointer to this inspirational AAC video.
Scientists seek to help locked-in man speak
December 14th, 2007 — Enabling Technology, Links, Motor impaired
Greg pointed me to this article over at CNN about Erik Ramsey and the work Phil Kennedy is doing with neural mapping. Very interesting work. The article mentions The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominque Bauby; I’ve read that book and highly recommend it.
Help You Play
December 14th, 2007 — Blind, Enabling Technology, Links, Motor impaired
Alex sent a pointer to www.helpyouplay.com has some cool game ideas including an accessible version of Guitar Hero similar to our project last semester. I’m glad to see more work on accessible games.
Accessible Math Ideas
December 2nd, 2007 — Blind, Enabling Technology, Ideas, Motor impaired
Karen says:
I just got back from 3.5 days at a camp with 15 adolescents with significant disabilities. Most use AAC devices and some sort of alternate computer input. One teenage girl explained to me that she is pretty good in math but she has two problems as she tries to tackle high school math.
1. She needs on onscreen calculator that is scanning accessible and allows her to send the answer from the window on the calculator to the document she has open on her computer. For the most part, her documents are actually scanned omni-page or pdf files - she steps through answer fields using a tab key. Right now, the only option is to copy, minimize, activate the form, and paste - that is really hard for her.
2. She needs some sort of math program that allows her to show her work. There is a program called Math Pad that kind of lets you do this, but it stops at simple multiplications and division.
Also, I’ve had teachers of the visually impaired ask me for calculators that would enable kids to show their work.